Kampala — THE Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) has received 1.1m (about sh3.2b) from the European Union (EU) in the last five years, the commission's head of cooperation, Jose Soler, has said.

He said the funding had contributed to the development of tourism in the country. Soler said at the commissioning of two ferry engines at Paara in Murchison Falls National Park that the funding had also been used to support capacity building of UWA by providing office and transport equipment as well as the execution of key studies.

The acting UWA executive director, Sam Mwandha, said the original ferry was donated by the Germany development organisation, GTZ, which supported UWA in the 1990s.

"Like all equipment and plants, the engines, after running for sometime showed signs of growing old and needed an overhaul, but after the overhaul, the engines continued to give some challenges and we often grounded the ferry."